Saint Lucia has experienced a new surge in COVID-19 cases, causing concern among local health officials.
On Friday, May 7, the Ministry of Health and Wellness received confirmation of 47 new cases of COVID-19.
The confirmation came from the Ezra Long Laboratory from a batch of 249 samples it processed the previous day.
“This is the highest daily increase in COVID-19 cases noted for the last 12 weeks,” Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sharon Belmar-George observed.
And she revealed that 63 percent of the cases are from the Southwestern belt of Saint Lucia.
“The increase in COVID-19 cases noted this week is of concern to the Ministry of Health,” Belmar-George stated.
She noted that as a result, the ministry is strengthening the necessary public health systems to manage the situation.
“We are still in a vulnerable position,” Belmar-George explained.
She said this is based on the high risk of the introduction of COVID-19.
The CMO also mentioned the variants of concern from the developed countries and neighboring Martinique, as well as transmission in-country due to poor compliance to protocols.
Belmar-George revealed that there were 136 active COVID-19 cases in country, all of whom are doing well.
As of Friday, the total number of cases Saint Lucia has diagnosed was 4, 654.
In addition, as of May 6, a total of 24,985 people had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
And 10,836 have received the second dose.
“Encourage your family and friends to get immunized so we can all be protected,” the CMO says.
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